Thursday 25 March 2010

Oh God, We're Digitising The Vaults

There now follows a brief conversation between the members of Roger's Trout Farm on the topic of videos.

Paul: I really hope that no-one has a copy of any of the videos we made.

Snips: ha ha ha ha ha (the evil kind). I've got a VHS that is desperate to be put onto a blog.

James A: those videos are surprisingly likeable with the benefit of a bit of distance. perhaps we should keep them to ourselves though?

Snips: I've got: 'I Want To Eat You', 'Permanent Stain', 'Excretion 2000', 'Spineless', but I don't have the Harbingers Of Doom video or the thing we did in Huddersfield high street on the Big Breakfast.

I remember a video of rehearsal that somehow Spearmint saw when we stayed at my Mums after a gig in Bristol, they still take the Mick now, carrot slippers and a pony tail, I can't see their angle. Anyway my mum might have it somewhere! *

Fraser: I remember that rehearsal video in Dayvans too. Isn't there one song that ends with me pretending to collapse? My baseball cap fell off, so I tend to remember the HIDEOUS EMBARRASSMENT of the dreaded "double crown" being on display, rather than, for example, James's carrot slippers.

I'm over it now, but I bet it's the kind of scenario that would give the Edge sleepless nights to this day.

Anyway, with regards to video on the blog, here's what I think. I think the way to do the blog is to be honest. We weren't ever cool. Some of you became cool afterwards, but we weren't at the time. We don't really know what we were thinking when we did the things we did, and frankly we're as bemused as anyone else by any media we happen to unearth. That's the tone I'm going for with blogging so far, a kind of confused archeological dig into our own teenage brains.

There again, I would say that, I'm not in many of the videos. *airpunch*

Steve: I think the approach of the blog is perfect – definitely entertaining and engaging & not bloated/self-important. Do any of you remember that shit folding bike that we used to go bombing around a ‘circuit’ of the awning showroom on, during practices?

James A: I used to have that Big Breakfast thing, but it didn't turn up in the parents attic clearance, so unless someone else has it, it will probably be lost forever.

Up until I went to Australia in 2003, I still had that drum head signed by Keith Chegwin hanging on the wall. It probably got thrown out while I was away, as the Chegwin scrawlings had faded so much it just looked like more old drum debri. it would probably have been worth thousands at auction. I'll have another look at the one box I was allowed to keep in new parent's attic.

Paul: Oh God. So what did we make videos for again? There were a load I did at uni - I really hope those don't turn up!

I'm only pretending to be embarrassed about the videos - I actually can't wait to see them! I really don't care how juvenile and uncool it all is. I'm immensely proud of everything we did and would absolutely love to see it get a good public airing.  Actually the fact that James was at college making these videos probably influenced my career in a way as I wanted to make videos too. And now I am a video director!

So there you have it, it's official. We are unembarrassable. We don't care.

With that in mind. Here's a video. James Agnew made this commercial for the band in 1991 (or thereabouts) as part of his college course. We, the band, have no idea where it was intended to be used, as it was made some 15 years before the invention of YouTube, and we never had the funds to pay for a slot on actual television. Frankly we are just glad it got here at all. And by 'glad' we mean 'hideously embarrassed after all'.



I expect we would charge more for demo tapes now, if any of us had any left.

* Remember I said we used to rehearse in a caravan shop? Well we once filmed a rehearsal, for our own entertainment. There was a (slight) craze in the late '80s/early '90s for slippers made out of foam-stuffed material, and made to look like cute things. They were like putting your foot inside a Care Bear. I had some shaped like Brian the snail from the Magic Roundabout, if memory serves. Anyway, Snips had slippers shaped like carrots, and he wore them for the filming because, well, if there was a camera there, we should make the effort to look, erm...well it's not 'good', is it.
 
I'm pretty sure some of that will end up on here eventually too. Unless Snips has burned the tape.

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