In the meantime, you can stream the video right here:

Camera/Edit: Will McConnell

And since then the lads have secured a promotional deal, and have been touring the country up and down. Oh and then there’s the small matter of this little seen TV advert.

In february, The Creatures were invited down to play RTE’s Late Late Show. A watershed moment. And here’s the story of that, and, in a glimpse, of their career thus far.

John Shelly & The Creatures – Long May You Reign

Download for iPod (39.1 MB)

Filmed & edited by Will McConnell
Bandwidth Films 2010

I went down to capture some of that atmosphere in the autumn of last year – and this is the result. Of course, if you want to see more, including a stunning acoustic version of this song, check out our acoustic session with the lads recorded at the same time.

The Rupture Dogs – Today & Tonight

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Directed by Will McConnell
in Co. Down, N.Ireland, 2009

© Bandwidth 2010

This time round we wanted to turn the camera back on the fans – and ask them to make the video. So, on a cold and wet November morning, 20 or so brave souls trench footed their way to the secret allotment behind number 4 Malone Avenue. Some of them even brought things – a joke, a photograph, a message for someone dear, a.. bar of soap..

Thanks to all who came – and this is for you.

The Good Fight – Kick Start

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Directed by Will McConnell
©Bandwidth Films 2009

A candle burns brightly for Pocket Promise in Bandwidth’s black heart – truly the handsomest band in Northern Ireland at the moment. And in our subtle schizophrenic mind, the heirs-apparents to Deathcab For Cutie.

It all started with a little video for their poptatsic single ‘I Burnt The Roller Disco’ – followed by a stunningly lovely acoustic session for the Bandwidth Sessions strand. And now here is their latest single – the subtle, multi-layered and damn catchy ‘Talkovertalking’ (all one word apparently).

London nearly stole Pocket Promise away from us – then they went to the south of France (as you do) to record their first album with Gemma Hayes’ producer (AS you do) – but they still came back to us like a prodigal pet dog. And now they’re going to go far again – watch them run.

Pocket Promise’s new album “I’ve Been Here For Ages..” is available now on iTunes. They’re playing in Omagh for the Top Of The Town event on 28th August with Bandwidth groupies Colenso Parade.

To see them in Belfast you might have to wait till 24th September, but on the plus side, its will mark the return of the Student Unions’ free Radar night – and you can’t get better than that.

Director/Camera; Will McConnell
© Bandwidth Films 2009

Mark Gordon and Tanya Mellotte have unusual day jobs. They like to travel around the world, remixing records and playing to packed out clubs in their alter ego Skibunny. You may know the clubnight in Belfast years back. Well. Bandwidth was curious to discover that Mark and Tanya also moonlight as a live band. With the addition of Christine on real life drums, the synths get shoved to the back wall and the guitars come on.

This video – the rather suggestively titled ‘Up Down’ is, to my knowledge, the first appearance of Skibunny as a live act on screen. Put your nose right up to the screen and blink rapidly (Bandwidth does not claim responsibility for etc.) – and you might just capture some of their new live visuals – which Bandwidth might just also have had a hand in. Yeah ok we did some of those too.

Director/Camera; Will McConnell
© Bandwidth Films 2009

It must have been the worst kept secret of the night, but Panama Kings planned a secret party in the basement of AU Magazine in Belfast. Secrets don’t keep to themselves well in Belfast. I think there were easily 350 people there, more including those who’ll say they were there years later. An awesome band, getting better every day, on the crest of a major breakthrough with a UK tour planned – a few bottles of Buckfast – and a night to remember.

What other way to capture what we deem to be the song of the year (and its only May) – from the live act of the decade (that’s safely within the numbers) – than with a live video?

Fresh from playing a sold out marquee venue at Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, Belfast titans And So I Watch You From Afar were also in the crowd – and Tony Wright from the band graced the stage to do perform a scary cover of Mclusky’s “To Hell With Good Intentions”. Expect that to appear on Youtube sometime soon (hey.. don’t look at ME).

And for the see-also column, check out some outtakes from the video shoot of Panama Kings at the Oh Yeah Music centre…. here…

Director/Camera: Will McConnell
Bandwidth 2009

This one was always going to work out strangely. Larne-outfit Dutch Schultz approached Bandwidth last year, with a view to relaunching their single It Bends In The Middle, a fantastic but largely unnoticed track that was now to be re-polished, re-recorded and re-packaged by their new parent label Di Di Mau Records. The pitch was quite simple – make us something that will grab attention, and while you’re at it, try and make us look sexy, and funny, but not sexist, and most of all make it ROCK. Ok, so clearly not that simple.

The result caused quite a stir needless to say. Or rather the band’s reaction to the video did – they took it rather too well, inviting Jo Robinson and other dancers from Polercise to attend their launch tour, inadvertently causing quite a ruckus amongst more conservative commentators.

So it came time for single number two. We at Bandwidth were looking for something equally as visually striking as the first video, but something which redressed (no pun intended) the balance a little towards the Schultz’s eclectic grunge/indie roots. So reluctantly the band packed away their high heels and lippy and, much less reluctantly, hit the road with A Plastic Rose to play some of their most blistering live dates of their career around Ireland and Scotland. Back home, we called in a few favours and took a trip (pun intended) around the park, and up and down the Stranmillis Rd in Belfast.

To us, ‘On The Shelf’ is the sound of a band on the cusp of something big. Featuring globe trotting dance/rock act Skibunny‘s lead vocalist Tanya, there’s a confidence in this song (and dare I say it, an optimism, if that’s not a dirty word) that will take Dutch Schultz as far as they want to go. We thought about a wee band from a provincial coastal town, with the hutzpah to do anything they damn well felt like, before the big record labels started calling the shots, and even then they’d just damn well do what they felt like. Maybe that’s why some of the kinder ones are already comparing the video to a mutant cross between Wind In The Willows and this little band.

As so far as the band goes, we certainly see the comparisons.

Director: Will McConnell
Bandwidth Films 2009

Download for iPod (29.6MB)

Every once in a while, a little song comes along and sits in your head. You don’t notice it’s there, and while you’re busy getting on with your life, it’s making a nest, hanging pictures, rearranging chairs and measuring for curtains. Apparently its this way for images too. And so it was with Pocket Promise.

The band contacted Bandwidth late in 2008 with a mind to film an acoustic band session in their lovely practice room up somewhere outside Dungannon. They had new material coming up, which lead singer/guitarist/piano maestro Cormac Fee told me was “very different” from their (incidentally, wonderfully dreamy, complex and highly recommended) 2008 EP Waving At Strangers. Needless to say, the session date went in the diary and no one thought much else about it.

Then it happened. An unassuming email from guitarist Dominic Coyle, the band had a new track that they were ‘pleasantly surprised’ with. The love affair began. A song so unremittingly catchy, so unashamedly poppy, at 2mins35 seconds so very different from what I expected.. Did someone say pop?

And so sometimes it happens like this. Just as I couldn’t get the song out of my head – so it turns out the band couldn’t get the image of the video out of their mind either. The aforementioned practice room near Dungannon was to feature, this time filled with hundreds and hundreds (six hundred to be precise) of colourful balloons for some reason – the rest was up to me. I agreed on the condition that I was allowed to exercise my pathological fear of balloons by putting in references to The Shining (1min9), Lord of The Flies and (1min42) The Birds (1min49)… OK maybe you have to look particularly hard..

As for that acoustic band session? It happened too. Stay tuned.

Director: Will McConnell
Bandwidth 2009

Article originally appeared on www.pavelware.com.

Having spent practically every weekend in February with Sligo born (though Belfast bred) band A Plastic Rose, I’m quite sure that anything I have to say will be tinted by fond memories of having my gig worn ears soothed by comfortable sofas, friendly conversation and the intermittent smell of Buckfast on the air.

And perhaps that’s the best place to start. Comprised of Gerry Norman, Troy Heaton, Ian McHugh and David Reid, A Plastic Rose contain a very insufferable quality in today’s world - behind their music, they are genuinely nice people; interested in fitting into the puzzle that is the music community in Northern Ireland.
In a generation that has been trying to outgrow talk of cliques, scenes and in-crowds, they are a band who over the last six months have simply put their heads down and worked hard at making their own material the best that they can. They can count many of the other local bands as not only fans, but friends – and can be seen taking musical life on the chin, concentrating on presenting the wider world with a show of effort rather than spend time focusing on the negatives.



A role at A Little Solidarity and consistantly rising stock (opening for LaFaro and ASIWYFA at the Christmas Two Step) has seen them quickly grow from opening act to cult favourite amongst other bands, and at the present time they are just starting to poke into the realm of headlining – landing top bill at Dutch Shultz’s album launch night. So far it appears the future will see further advancements into this, with the band scheduled to make a proud return to The Limelight in April to headline the Two Step.

Constantly striving to make every song sound different without losing the essence of their particular brand of shoe-gaze, you could say that whilst you may not enjoy what they play; you can’t fault their attitude towards their craft. Or at least, you could, but I’d have to tell you that you’re wrong. It is this drive to perfect their sound has seen them move from slow building work like Suns A Shadow to the anthemic Kids Don’t Behave Like This, a song which is instantly recognisable and generates energy in crowds normally reserved for Fighting With Wire – culminating with it, Superspeed and Skin (their latest batch of direct yet poignant songs – recently released via a self titled E.P at the Spring & Airbrake) going down an absolute storm with audiences.



And that comment is not without comparison – there is something, dare I say, Cahir-esque about Gerry Norman’s stage presence; but let’s not get carried away.

A Plastic Rose is maturing as an act. With a focus on the fresh turnover of new ideas and a growing affinity for engaging with their audiences, I personally will be following them, hopefully, for many years to come as they continue to draft what is shaping up to be a very distinct soundscape. Providing Gerry’s sofa doesn’t eat me alive some night.

Director: Will McConnell
Bandwidth 2009

We first met Panda Kopanda back in 2007, when we filmed their Crescent Arts Centre gig as part of a short film project we were making. As we unashamedly admitted back then, Panda Kopanda are one of Bandwidth’s personal favourite Belfast bands – so the opportunity to work with them again was always oh-so-secretly hoped for.

In the winter of 2008 that happy wish came true. The band approached us looking for a debut video single for their achingly-anticipated upcoming album ‘This Hope Will Kill Us’ – the concept was a total eyeopener to us. Like a lighting bolt it was apparent to us – ‘Spirals’ wasn’t to be a single in the traditional sense, but rather a visual ‘accompaniment’ to the album. Makes sense if you think about it – what else are music videos?

Furthermore, even though the Pandas’ Crescent Arts Center gig had been originally intended as part of a short film, it never occurred to us at the time to include the film’s protagonist, Heather (played so well by Ellen Turley, who you may recognise from The Pecadillos), as she watches the band play during the scene. ‘Spirals’ was intended to remedy this, and continue the story of Heather some time later. Ellen came back to reprise the role once more (albeit with shorter hair) and the band obliged, lead singer Gavin confusing matters by turning up in a delighful sparkly dress (don’t ask don’t tell). Watch the leary camera angles and ‘drunken’ wobbling frame – then the mystery feet skulking away down the staircase at the video’s end. There’s a story going on here that doesn’t involve the band – its a drunken love story between two spectators. But the dress doesn’t have anything to do with it.

And yes, despite some brief cutaway filming grabbed during soundcheck, this is all footage of the band playing the song live, captured in one solid take, at the Club Flick-knife night in the Pavillion, Belfast, the week before Hallowe’en 2008 (that explains the plastic cobwebs then).

Director/Camera: Will McConnell
Bandwidth Films 2008

Bandwidth was approached by our friends over at DiDiMau Records to manage a whole new look for N. Ireland trio Dutch Schultz to coincide with the release of their latest single ‘It Bends In The Middle’ and the subsequent re-release of their 2008 album ‘Carve Our Names’.

No small feat.

The record company wanted a ‘sexy and cool, but also light hearted’ approach to ‘It Bends..’ The band had watched and loved Bandwidth’s other work, but we ourselves wanted a departure from our usual aesthetic, while still keeping some of our visual trademarks.

In other words, we sourced some pole dancers and high heels and got to work.

Willy Mundel from Dutch Schultz: “We got together with Bandwidth and the initial ideas for the bends video where fast cars, fast motorcycles and sexy ladies with tattoos rescuing the band from various scenes of peril shot and acted in a comical way. When we stepped back and took a look at the original ideas we quickly noticed our lack of comedy acting, fast motorcycles and American muscle cars could be a problem.

“So the idea was simplified to sexy girl with tattoos, we couldn’t go wrong. The band playing in drag was a last minute suggestion by Will, but one welcomed by all the band as we all have a fondness for glam rock and Gary glitter, who doesn’t?”

“Shooting the video was a lot of fun, my only major annoyance that I cant forgive them for is having to wear high heels that I looked so well in and they wouldn’t let me take them home. The whole process from start to finish was very easy going, professional and we didn’t seem to run into any problems, none the band where aware of anyway.”

Up front and giving it stacks is Joanna Robinson, All-Ireland pole dancing champion (and look out for her in Ghost Machine) who, in her own words, wanted to show Kate Moss a thing or two. And the band will swear that high heels and wigs were not their original idea, but we at Bandwidth remember it otherwise”

Stay tuned for further collaboration with the band on their next single in Spring of 2009. Expect something a little more sober next time. or as Willy puts it, “We’ve already had discussions for our next video where we’re attempting to create a musical dramatisation based on a scaled down version of the magnificent seven, filmed on a giant chessboard, I cant wait..”

Director: Will McConnell
Director of Photography: Martin Bolton
Costumes: Timmy White
Key Grip: Gavin Moriarty

Bandwidth 2008

In September 2008 Bandwidth collaborated with The Good Fight on the video their track ‘Glad You Know’, released through their myspace site. The Good Fight have had astounding success for such a relatively new band, winning BBC NI’s “ATL Rock School” contest in 2007. As part of their prize they were awarded a BBC-produced music video for their track ‘Landslide’. ‘Glad You Know’ is their second music video.

Starring Alana Kerr and Sam Bowman and shot in and around Belfast, the video tells the story of a relationship in reverse. Adam Montgomery, bassist with The Good Fight explains the process of settling on this concept: “Bandwidth approached us about making a video and through brain storming sessions, the video was thought of (it was closely followed by the idea of little people running round a tree). ‘Glad You Know’ details the events of a couple’s love life in reverse beginning with an awkward conversation that seemed too long coming and working back to showing sentimental time spent together, one of which is at our gig!”

Intercut with the action, the band play in the beautiful surroundings of Belfast’s Empire Music Hall. The two concepts are finally tied together as the story of the couple’s reverse-break up is projected on the wall behind the band. So no little people, but a few trees after all.

Director: Will McConnell
Camera: Conor Rotherham

Bandwidth 2008

In early 2008, Bandwidth Films were approached by BBC Northern Ireland’s premier music TV show, ATL TV, to direct a video for a then unheard of group of upstarts by the name of General Fiasco.

A sell out tour with One Night Only, and a top 40 hit later, General Fiasco are the hottest thing on the indie scene – continuing to delight audiences all around the place with that catchy, fresh, genuine sound that only they can produce.

‘Rebel Get By’ was born when the BBC production team behind ATL TV put Bandwidth and General Fiasco together in the same room. All parties had an open minded approach to the project, yet the prevaling feeling was that the sentiment of the song had to be expressed, while still keeping the thing upbeat and jolly. Putting it lightly, Owen Strathern (Singer & Bassist and main writer of Rebel Get By) pointed out that “years ago people used to rebel now all we do is get drunk”. We reached the conclusion that it’s hard for young people to rebel today, especially when they have more commitments and undue pressure than ever before. We constructed an idea of a few young people sitting in dead-end jobs, wanting to rebel but instead just sitting with one eye on the clock to strike half 5. Then the characters would find General Fiasco’s music and that would make them feel free and energised again.

The shoot took place over three days in February in a house on Magdala Street, Belfast, where the band usually rehearsed. The band made the perhaps unwise gesture of announcing from stage at the Student’s Union the night before that they were to film the next day, issuing an open invitation to the party, shortly before the stage was invaded and amps knocked over.

The video also starred Shauna Tohill, formerly of Angelfall and now of Poets Pocket Symphony, as she walks around the city, tying together the disparate strands of several lives she witnesses – a couple playing guitar in the park, a guy waiting for a bus, another guy stuck in work at a laundrette – the video showcases a whole community at work. As night falls, the band (who by the looks of things have been playing all day – they must be tired poor things) pick up the tempo a little. People start arriving. The neighbours complain. Some unwise soul brings Buckfast. The neighbours say to hell with it and come over for the craic. The party was real, by the way. The guys rattled off Rebel Get By a few more times, then launched into a full General Fiasco gig to the most priviledged fans of their career thus far. Would you admit to being there? Did you realise the ceiling of the room below was actually bending?

With a headline tour coming up in 2009, you really have no excuse left but to get yourself to a General Fiasco gig at some point in your life and lose your dignity dancing to this song. Do it!

Director: Will McConnell
Camera: Martin Bolton, Michael Gibson

Bandwidth 2008

It was the Summer of 2008 when Bandwidth approached The Jane Bradfords about the possibility of collaborating on a music video. Usually the process goes differently: bands approach filmmakers about videos not the other way around.

Not this time. The Jane Bradfords is the self-described bedroom project of one Declan Gallen. The band had already had great critical success with the release of their eponymous first album earlier in the year, and ‘The Evening Angels Gather Here’ had already received a lot of airplay, along with a number one single in Quatar with ‘Hide From The Cold’.

Will from Bandwidth remembers it well: “I was watching The Jane Bradfords support Kowalski in Belfast’s Spring & Airbrake. I’ve been a fan of the band for years, but this, for some reason, was the first time in a long them I had seen them live. I’ll never forget hearing ‘The Evening Angels Gather Here’ played to a live audience for the first time. The song seemed to take on a life of its own, and during the outro when Deci sings ‘Starlight starbright’ into a megaphone, I took a look around the venue and realised there was not a person who’s eyes weren’t transfixed onto the stage. The whole place just shut up.”

“Driving home that night, that refrain ‘starlight, starbright’ was just stuck in my head the whole time. I looked at the buildings as I drove past and realised how peaceful and serene the city can look at night. It occurred to me that the Jane Bradfords have a distinctly urban sound as far as N.Ireland bands are concerned, and that Belfast at the dead of night was very much their natural habitat. That’s when and idea started forming, and the next morning I wrote out the whole video pitch as it stands now and sent it to The Jane Bradfords through an email on their myspace page. Fortunately they liked it, loved it in fact, and Deci just let me get to work”.

The video was filmed over one summer’s night in Belfast, in and around the dockland area (now lovingly gentrified) and the suburbs east of the city. Will spent a a few days compiling stock footage (some of which was material left over from old projects), but the majority of the video was fiilmed in one night and one take by Michael Gibson. To say more would give the game away – on first viewing ‘The Evening Angels..’ is a kind of optical illusion. But after a few minutes the method should become apparent (but if it still isn’t look very carefully at around the 3mins46 mark)

The Evening Angels will also soon have the honour of being the very first of Bandwidth’s music videos to be made available on the iTunes Music Store. I believe that’s a first for an unsigned band from Northern Ireland too.

Director: Will McConnell
Camera: Michael Gibson

Bandwidth 2008

It was the hazy summer of 2007 when Bandwidth were approached by Belfast act The Remains Of Youth to produce a music video for their latest EP “(You Miss The Full Picture)”.

The Remains Of Youth started as the side project of Adam Shirlow and Michael Henderson from another great Belfast band, Coda. Joined by Andy Melville and Gareth Scott they started making waves in 2007 and, with the release of what was to be their final EP, found a mature post-punk sound that evoked Fugazi and At The Drive In.

The band were very keen to allow Bandwidth to pick the track we wanted to work on, and to their suprise we went with Set Low. By far the black sheep amongst the punchy collection of tight, lo-fi guitar riff tracks, Set Low weighs in at nearly 5 mins and gradually builds upon deeply personal lyrics and a very subtle melody.

Perfect.

The shoot took place over two sweltering August evenings in Belfast, when, for reasons still uknown, it never seemed to get dark. The band were rehearsing as usual in the basement space below the AU magazine offices on Bradbury Place when we arrived. Adam grabbed some christmas lights he found under the sink and we tried to pretty the place up a bit – but we didn’t need them – the rustic charm of the place shone through. This was the band in their natural habitat, playing Set Low over and over, segueing into other material totally unintentionally, so completely lost in the music they love, playing together so intensely, just a band standing around in a circle, that they barely heard Will’s hollers of ‘Cut’ and ‘Play it again’.

The following day, after looking over the footage, and listening to Set Low on a loop, over and over, because we still fuckng loved it more and more every time we heard it, Will grabbed a camera and filmed his sister Lucy, an actress, riding on the bus while listening to the song on her ipod. A whole new element of the video became apparent to us; here was a Remains Of Youth fan, walking around Belfast at night, doing nothing but captivating us because she loves the band and so do we. Initially we think she is travelling to one of their gigs, or maybe she’s going to pop in on the guys in the rehersal room. But she wanders around, captivated, trying to catch light between her fingers, picking up lost flowers, and the band play on – the soundtrack to that very moment in her life, and ours.

A film as natural to us as music comes to the band – a time capsule of a summer, subtle, personal, and forever stuck in our heads.

Director: Will McConnell
Camera: Martin Bolton, Will McConnell

Bandwidth 2007